New home for Angels looks unlikely

The city of Anaheim on average has lost money on a year-to-year basis from Angel Stadium under its contract with the team over the past 16 years, city figures show. ROD VEAL, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Angel Stadium, the source of lease negotiations between Anaheim and the team, gets middling rankings from stadium critics - not a great stadium but not an awful one either. KEVIN SULLIVAN, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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The city of Anaheim is renegotiating its stadium lease with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. FILE PHOTO BY ROSE PALMISANO, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Angels Chairman Dennis Kuhl said Wednesday the Angels and the Braves were in similar situations in terms of wanting help with renovations from their respective cities. But he said the Angels have not explored other locations and that he expects to reach a new deal with Anaheim. FILE: ANA P. GUTIERREZ, FOR THE REGISTER

The city of Anaheim on average has lost money on a year-to-year basis from Angel Stadium under its contract with the team over the past 16 years, city figures show. ROD VEAL, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Tipping point

When Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed found out that suburban Cobb County had made a generous offer – a reported $450 million – to help finance a new Braves stadium, he said his city simply couldn't compete. Faced with the prospect of such spending, local leaders have to weigh the state of their community's finances. In Atlanta's case, Reed said the city has a $900 million backlog in infrastructure projects.

Source: Associated Press

With news that the Atlanta Braves have been lured away from Turner Field for a new stadium in the suburbs, itbecomes easier to imagine a similar scenario for the Angels.

But there are at least two key differences that make an Angels move far less likely.

First, the Braves found a generous patron in Cobb County, which has reportedly offered $450 million in public financing to help build a new stadium. Hundreds of millions in public funding for a new stadium appears unlikely for the Angels in the greater Los Angeles area, and a move outside of the market would be expected to be blocked by Major League Baseball.

Second, the city of Anaheim has agreed to renegotiate the stadium lease to make it easier for the team to cover an estimated $130 million to $150 million in renovations. The city of Atlanta declined to help out with an estimated $150 million to $250 million of stadium repairs at Turner Field.

Angels Chairman Dennis Kuhl said Wednesday the Angels and the Braves were in similar situations in terms of wanting help with renovations from their respective cities. But he said the Angels have not explored other locations and that he expects to reach a new deal with Anaheim.

“We’re focused on this discussion,” Kuhl told the Register. “We’re confident we can get this done. We’re not even looking elsewhere.”

The proposed lease, which is being used as the baseline for negotiations, would allow the team to lease 150 city-owned acres surrounding the stadium for $1 a year for 66 years, with full development rights on the largely vacant land. Revenue generated from that development would give the Angels a new source of funds for repairs.

The current lease extends until 2029, although the team can terminate the lease any time from 2016 to 2019. The proposed lease would extend though 2057, with an opt-out option for the team in 2036.

Several Anaheim City Council members believe the Angels could leave town.

“It’s not a gamble I’m willing to take,” Councilwoman Kris Murray said Wednesday. “It’s a scenario we’ve seen over and over again in other cities, and we want to work something out.”

Councilwoman Lucille Kring agreed, and said she was confident that the Angels were not actively looking at other sites.

“I don’t believe they’re talking to people because that would not be in good faith,” she said. “And we’re negotiating in good faith.”

Kring spoke to the Register outside Angel Stadium on Wednesday, minutes before her official announcement there that she would challenge Mayor Tom Tait in next year’s election. Tait was the sole dissenting vote in the council’s decision to renegotiate the lease based on the proposal drawn up by city staff, and is firm in his belief the Angels will not move.

Irvine’s Great Park, with 1,500 mostly undeveloped city-owned acres, has been suggested as a possible stadium site but three Irvine council members expressed doubts about the feasibility. Councilman Larry Agran said his impressions were formed by earlier conversations about a possible NFL stadium.

“Over the years, I’ve been cautioned by other mayors not to get sucked into a huge public subsidy for a private, profit-making entity,” Agran said.

Aside from the stadium, costly new roads and freeway ramps would be needed, Agran said. Councilwoman Christina Shea said the city didn’t have hundreds of millions of dollars to pitch in and the best stadium site is now privately owned. Councilman Jeff Lalloway added that the Angels would not necessarily be a desirable attraction.

“The Great Park is in the middle of a residential neighborhood and I’m not sure a stadium of 40,000 or 50,000 seats would fit in to the character of the city,” Lalloway said.

Plans for privately financed NFL stadiums in downtown Los Angeles and the City of Industry have been drawn up, and it’s conceivable that those plans could be adapted for a new Angels stadium. But the absence of significant public funding in those locations makes it unlikely the team would find a deal as attractive as the “Big A,” Tait said.

The team currently receives all stadium concessions and advertising revenue, and virtually all parking income. It receives 100 percent of all ticket revenue for the first 2.6 million tickets and pays the city $2 per ticket sold beyond that, its sole annual lease payment.

Under the proposed lease, those payments would be reduced, with the threshold increasing to 3 million tickets. And the team would be allowed to drop “Anaheim” from its name. In return, the city would no longer have to contribute $600,000 annually for maintenance.

Wally Courtney, a commercial real estate broker in Anaheim and longtime Angels fan, said he’s confident the team will be staying put.

“I think the Dodgers would fight the Angels moving any closer to Dodger Stadium,” Courtney said, adding that the state’s elimination of redevelopment districts ended a key source of potential public funding for sports venues. “So I don't know of any city that would be able to pay anything for a new stadium.

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